Robin writes:
<< In the book of Chopin's letters (I don't recall the title at the
moment but will find it and post this) Chopin takes note of the passing
of Hipkins with the comment that he(Chopin) liked his (Hipkin's) tuning
the best, indicating a preference of some sort. <<
This is news to me. I wasn't aware that Chopin had named the tuner of
his choice, only that there was one.
>>Although I personally think that equal temperament has an
intrinisic flaw in the degree of the detuning of the thirds and sixths
that is required to equally divide the octave, I think the accurate,
precise method of division of the octave with attendant smooth
progression of thirds and sixths has indeed a virtue and usefullness
which does indeed relate musically. <<
Hmm, this is certainly a different perspective from my own. I consider
the detuning of the ET intervals to be its major distinguishing
characteristic, as it gives the thirds a rather stimulative effect,
everywhere. This is the quality that is usually held by Eb or A in a
Well-Temperament.
The "flaw", if there is one, is the poverty of harmonic resources, ie,
that there is nothing really consonant, nothing really strident and piercing,
and no contrast to call attention to either.
>>The ear adapts to dissonance, at
least to a degree, and as it has to adapt to the thirds and sixths which
are quite dissonant in ET is is possible that this virtue is that the
ear, once having mastered as it were, the dissonance of ET can then more
readily sense past this to perceive these intervals for what they really
are if they are all equally out of tune. The tempered intervals are,
as I have argued here before, the emblems so to speak, of the just
intervals.<<
Agreed, but they do not create the same subliminal, physiological effects
on the emotional level as the variety of interval widths found in WT's. To
the listener that is insensitive to the musical qualities of various widths
of thirds or sixths, there are no effects. That doesn't mean that they aren't
there.
There is a line of communication that is not dependant on the
intellectual aspects of music. This vocabulary is employed by the violinist
that sharpens leading tones,etc. to create effects of expectation and
resolution. That effect has to be suggested when the intonation is fixed. It
can be physically produced when the intonation is flexible. The keyboard,
with fixed pitches, can only offer this by modulation when there is a WT in
place.
>> As I think that ET has a handicap, so to speak, in its inherent
dissonance, then I can see that
the improved harmonic value of HT, in some keys, will offer a much
better sound which is simply the result of some thirds and sixths being
"less out of tune". <<
"Better" implies a value judgement,which is not necessarily an evil
thing. However, I do think it can be misleading. I would submit that
consonance is not the be all and end all of music. As Braid-White quotes
Plutarch, "Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord". He is not
saying "Musicians" must investigate discord, but rather, that music itself
requires it if we are to appreciate harmony. I take this quote to mean that
without contrast, the perception of beauty suffers. Thus, I view "sameness"
as a threat to the appreciation of harmony.
>>This, I think, is the virtue of most, if not all,
HT's, particularly well-temperament. When experienced by people that
have become "jaded", as it were, by the dissonance of equal
temperament, less tempered thirds and sixths can come as a bombshell of
expressivity and musicalness which can markedly affect some people. <<
Perhaps, but once again, I hold that contrast is more affecting than
consonance by itself. I have seen performers get their hands on a meantone
tuning for the first time, and they are not quite as affected as when they
are introduced to something like a Werckmeister. 1/4 Comma MT has no more
contrast than ET, until you hit the diesis,at which point the distance
between harmony and dissonance is so great that it ceases to be a comparison
of effect and turns into a distinction between usable and non.
>>Were the cycle of key-color, though, and the contrast of thirds,
particularly, of very much importance then one should expect to see
this subject taken up, at least, here and there as a subject dear to
their hearts, by composers, theorists, musicologists <snip> Still,
in general, there appears to be a substantial disconnect between the
number of the actual users, as a body, of these systems, that is, the
very large number of musicians of various kinds over the centuries, and
the writers of any substance on the subject, when, to my mind, if this
was more than an incidental subject, one would expect full engagement
from those most immediately affected by the "affects" of the tuning
systems.<<
Then how are we to explain the overwhelming preference for keys with
fewer accidentals in keyboard music written between 1600 and 1900? This
preference seems to be directly linked to the evolution of temperament, by era
. The use of the "wolf" keys found in the traditional MT is virtually
non-existant before 1700. (Vicentino and his ilk were venturing into non-12
intonation, but aside from these short-lived forays beyond the Halberstadt
model, the world of composition appears to have been hemmed in by the wolf).
How are we to explain the near total abstinence from F# in the keyboard
compostions of the 1700"s, as well as the correlation between key-signature
and choice? Especially in sonata form, we see a directly inverse linkage
between the number of accidentals in the key and the number of compositions
that use it. This preference for keys is near universal,(Bach, Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven etal).
How are we to explain the increasing use of the remote keys as the
contrasts of tempering became more and more mitigated throughout the 1800's?
Or the virtual democracy of key selection after the 20th century began, (a
point at which I believe ET had leveled the 12 keys to pitch choice and no
more).
Taken as a whole, the evolution of keyboard composition appears to march in
lockstep with the evolution of temperament, from the eight keys favored in
the MT era to the pan-tonal characteristic of the equally tempered 20th
century. I don't think this is by chance or coincidence.
>> This leads me to think that the claim that cyclic key color is of
much importance exaggerates what is, in essence, an arbitrary, almost
capricious artifact of tuning (although this seems too blunt an
expression). <<
Given the coherance of direction, (listed above), I don't see how
"arbitrary" can be used to describe the form of inequality found in the
history of temperament. There is a definite organization in place that is
found in all of the proposals. Whereas WT's differ, it is not in their form,
but rather, their relative strengths of contrast. Even the MT's were
similar, with the wolf being switched back and forth a few degrees but never
reversed with the consonant keys.
>>This aspect is the assemblege of various methods used,<snip>a level of
dissonance here and there, etc, and, in other words, a reflection of
the skill or lack thereof of the musicians as tuners. This then
elaborated into a kind of incidental, habituated artifact of the tuning
system and we have, voila, a profuse variety of historical temperaments.<<
Once again, there is a profuse variety of temperaments, but essentially
only one form.
>>Indeed, the whole concept of temperament is a non
sequitur with regard to ensemble tuning.<<
Agreed.
>>I must say, Ed, that your recommendation of
the G flat impromptu as an example of key color and contrasting tension
of thirds seems to be off the mark, as this impromptu, which I have
performed, (and probably the other as well), is, in fact, a very calm,
placid, lyrical piece, entirely unrepresentative of the use of those
tense aspects of key color which, I think, should be inherent in the
use of such a remote key, at least to my understanding, as I have
gleaned from reading your postings here. It begins in the position of
the third, that is with the third in the melody, and there is nothing
in the music, as far as I can tell, that should suggest a degree of
tension that is any more than that found in a much less remote key. In
fact, it appears to be the contrary. <<
I have presented this piece, side by side, in ET and WT, and the
consensus of tuners and musicians that hear them both is that the WT version
has far more depth and resonance. The "calm, placcid, lyrical" quality can
be accentuated by the purity of the fifths, which seems to be happening. I
would be interested in your comparison of this piece on a WT to ET.
>> Another, perhaps very telling indicator is that the recapitulations
of themes in sonata form, or the tonal expositions of themes in fugues,
at least as far as I can tell, do not make allowances should the key
scheme require it, for the so-called affects found in various keys, that
is, the transpositions do not induce a kind of vague, perhaps diffuse,
alteration correlating to the change in key color, instead, the themes
or fragments are usually stated in a nearly identical, verbatim fashion,
appearing to totally disregarding any aspect or implication of the
present key color.
<snip>
>>One would expect, were such key color that
important, that the use of transposed themes would, at least, over the
centuries, show otherwise. We should readily find some indicators that
the composers placed much importance on, or even noticed in this
context, these so-called affects and used them, but it appears not to
be the case, as far as I can tell.<<
I posted a rather detailed analysis, last year, of Enid Katahn's
impressions of how Beethoven used the qualities of temperament. I believe it
was in dialogue with David Love. If he has kept a copy,(I can't find it in
my computer), please repost it. It concerned passages in op 109, I think,
and she had a clear example of his passagework building to a
climax/resolution that moved into increasing dissonance in a definite
pattern, I think it was on the order of Cm, C, C#m, C#, B7-> Emaj. She
showed how this sequence would not have worked to create the same sense of
resolution in any other key, ie, had he written this in a different key, the
modulation would have jumped back and forth between consonance, rendering the
final resolution much less effective. She states that she finds much
evidence that Beethoven used the various harmonic qualities in his
compositons.
We should also ask ourselves why the conclusions of music composed in the
WT era never end with a movement upwards in the dissonance found in the WT
form. That is, why nothing is written that ends with a modulation in the
direction "away" from C. If temperament wasn't a compositional influence, it
seems logical that there would have been music composed that resolved in
opposite directions,but there is scarely any. Is it any wonder then that
sonatas between 1750 and say, 1830 always ended by moving in the direction of
less dissonance found in the normal WT form? Coincidence again?
I would hope that there be a musicologist in the crowd here that can add
some flesh to the argument, (maybe just a pound?). I have been in talks
with some at Vanderbilt, and we are working on a more focussed set of
examples that I hope to have available in Dallas.
REgards,
Ed Foote RPT
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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